A Cup Of Rice Or A Bag Of Gold

(II Corinthians 8:9)

It was many centuries ago in a remote village in India. Word began to
spread that something was about to happen that no one had seen in there
lifetime the prince was coming to visit their forgotten little village.
Everyone was excited but no one was more excited than the village beggar.
Every day he eked out another day by sitting by the road with his little
cup, hoping to get enough money to buy the rice to live one more day. He
actually had two cups one for collecting money and one for his few grains
of rice. But now the prince was coming the wealthy prince! When the
prince finally arrived, the beggar mustered his most impassioned appeal -
Alms! Alms for the poor! And the prince stopped. The beggar's heart was
pounding furiously.

Give me your cup of rice. That was all the prince said. The beggar slumped
down in disbelief. Here was the wealthiest man in the land, asking for his
lousy little cup of rice. The beggar was about to refuse, but instead he
reached in and he put three grains of rice in the prince's hand. The
prince turned to his servant and said, Bring me the bag of gold. The
beggar could hardly contain himself as he eagerly stretched out his empty
collection cup. The prince reached into his bag and placed three grains
of gold in the beggar's cup. And then he disappeared, never to return but
leaving the beggar to wonder for the rest of his life . . . what would
have happened if I had given him my whole cup of rice?

Jesus, the Prince of Heaven, may be passing your way today with so much
to give you. The forgiveness of every sin you've ever committed . . . a
new beginning . . . the peace that has eluded you your whole lifetime . .
. eternity with Him in heaven. He wants to make you spiritually rich. In
fact, it was very expensive for Him to be able to offer you the heaven
you don't deserve instead of the death penalty your sin does deserve. In
our word for today from the Word of God, God describes the unspeakable
sacrifice Jesus made to rescue you. II Corinthians 8:9 says, You know the
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ (that's undeserved love), that though He
was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, so that you through His
poverty might become rich.

When God's Son, Prince of Heaven, is hanging on that blood-stained cross,
He is totally impoverishing Himself so you can have God's love, God's
resources, God's heaven. It's hard for us to see that we are the beggar
but the Bible says we're spiritually bankrupt because our running of our
own life, and that has cut us off from our Creator. Only Jesus can bring
us back. God says, When we were still powerless, Christ died for the
ungodly.

Your life is as big as you can make it and it's nowhere near enough, is
it?

Jesus is passing by you today, asking you to turn over to Him the life He
died for.

If you're ready to trade what you have for what Jesus has, tell Him you're
putting all your trust in Him today.

Don't make the eternal mistake of hanging onto your little cup of rice,
and missing Jesus' bag of gold.

From: precii@yahoo.com